How to Make a Resume

Edited byMelissa Padrick

A resume is an advertisement about you. It should highlight how your skills, experience, and achievements match to the requirements of the job you want to get. What you include on your resume and how you organize your information will be different for each job. To make a resume that gets you a job interview, you have to decide which style of resume is most appropriate, and then only include information that the employer will find relevant. Determining the right style and creating a winning resume can be easily done if you follow these simple steps.

Steps

Chronological Resume

Determine if a chronological resume is right for you. A chronological resume is best for those who have mostly worked in the same field throughout their career and can show a steady progression up the ladder (each job is a step-up from the last). For example, someone who has worked as a receptionist, then as a legal secretary, and is now a paralegal may want to choose a chronological resume when applying for a new job. The focus of this type of resume is job experience.

1. List your employment history. Your jobs should be listed in order with the most recent one first.

   • Include the name of the company, the city in which the company is located, your title, your duties and responsibilities, and the dates of employment for each employer.

   • Under each job description include a bold heading, which reads “major accomplishment” or “achievements”, and list two or three achievements or a major accomplishment for that position. For instance, you could list ways you saved the company money, made the office run more efficiently, or brought in new clients or customers. For example, you could include information on how you, “implemented a new filing system that saved $1.50 per client in supply and labor costs.”

2. Provide information on your education.

   • If you attended more than one college, university, or training program, list the most recent one first.

   • For each institution, include the name, city and state, and the degree or certificate you received.

   • If you had a cumulative grade point average (“GPA”) of 3.5 or better, list it as well.

   • If you did not attend college or trade school, do not include your high school education; including high school information on your resume doesn’t look professional.

3. Add additional sections as needed. Because a resume is unique to each person, you may want to add additional sections in order to highlight something that makes you stand out as the right candidate for the particular job. For example:

   • If you have job specific skills, list them in a section titled ‘Special Skills.’

   • If you are bi-lingual and the job favors those who speak more than one language, list the languages in which you are fluent under “Other Languages”.

   • If being computer literature is important to perform the job well, create a ‘Computer Skills’ section and list all of the programs, applications, and programming languages you know how to use.

Functional Resume

Determine if a functional resume is right for you. A functional resume is best suited for those who cannot show a steady career progression. This type of resume is designed to highlight specific skills rather than job titles. For example, a functional resume is best for people who have changed jobs frequently, or who have gaps in their work history. A mother who took time off to raise a family would likely benefit from a functional resume. A photographer who has won awards for their photographs, but who has only had one job working as a photographer would also benefit from the format of a functional resume. The focus of this type of resume is skills and experience, not job history.

1. Determine whether to list your ‘Education’ or ‘Skills, Awards, and Achievements’ first. Choose whichever best sells you as the best candidate for the job.

   • If you have a bachelor or graduate degree, you likely want to put your education first.

   • If you have job specific skills, or a large number of awards, you may want to list those first.

   • For example, if you don’t have any paid job experience but you just graduated from college, listing your education first will highlight your most impressive accomplishment first.

   • If, on the other hand, you did have not completed your undergraduate studies yet but you have worked at 2 volunteer jobs and 2 internships, listing those accomplishments first will showcase how industrious you are.

2. Provide details of your education. Regardless of whether you list your education first or second, it’s important to give recruiters details of what you studied.

   • If you attended more than one college, university, or training program, list them with the most recent one first.

   • For each institution, include the name, city and state, and the degree or certificate you received.

   • If you had a cumulative grade point average (“gpa”) of 3.5 or better, list it as well.

   • If you did not attend college or trade school, do not include your high school education; including high school information on your resume doesn’t look professional.

3. Decide how to present your skills, awards, and achievements. You may divide these into three individual sections in your functional resume, or you can consolidate the information into one section.

   • Label each section something like “Special Skills,” “Awards & Achievements,” or “Major Achievements.”

   • This section, or these sections, could be presented as a list of the skills you have that are related to the particular job, a bullet point list of awards, a chronological description of your achievements, or some combination of the three.

4. List your employment history. Since this isn’t the strongest part of your resume, you’ll want to list it at the end so that the recruiter reads through your more impressive accomplishments first.

   • You should include sub-headings for the type of experience each job provided you with, such as “Management Experience,” “Legal Experience,” or “Financial Experience.”

   • For each job, be sure to include the name of the company, the city in which the company is located, your title, your duties and responsibilities, and the dates of employment for each employer.

   • Optionally, under each job description you can include a bold heading, which reads “Major Accomplishment” or “Achievements,” and list two or three achievements or a major accomplishment for that position.

   • You may want to outline how you took the initiative to make the office run more efficiently by, “establishing office procedures to improve workflow and reduce paper costs.”

Combination Resume

Determine if a combination resume is right for you. A combination resume is best for those who have specific skills, and wish to highlight how they were acquired. If you’ve developed a special skill set from a wide variety of activities, and if you have specific skills and an evolving work history where you acquired them, a combination resume is likely the best style of resume for you.

1. Decide in what combination you will list your education, work history, and other achievements. Remember, your resume is an advertisement for you, so your best qualities should be listed first. For example, if you have a graduate degree, you may want to list your education first, or if you have won a prominent award in your field, you may chose to list your skills, awards, and achievements first. On the other hand, if your most recent role is an impressive achievement, make sure you start with that.

2. List your employment history. This can be done in one of two ways:

   • If your work history includes positions in more than one field, you should list your jobs under functional sub-headings, which categorize the skills you used at each particular one (e.g., “Financial Experience,” “Customer Service Experience,” “Research Experience,” etc.). When listing your employment history in this manner, each sub-heading should contain a listing of the positions you’ve held that relate to those functional areas. The listing should include the name and location of the employer, a description of your duties and responsibilities, the dates you were employed, and any accomplishments or achievements at that particular job.

   • If you can demonstrate that your evolving work history highlights the key skills you want to promote, you may want to list your work history in reverse chronological order, without including any sub-headings. Instead of the subheadings, you could strategically select the way you word your descriptions of your roles and responsibilities to highlight how you honed those skills.

3. Provide information about your education. The details you include about your education will be the same as the details you’d include in other resume styles; the difference is in where you present the information on the resume. For each college, university, or trade school you have attended, list the name and location of the institution, the degree or certificate you received, and the years you attended. If your grade point average (“GPA”) was 3.5 or higher, you may want to list it as well.

4. Provide information on your skills, awards, and achievements. This can be blocked into one section, or they can be distributed within the sub-headings of your resume that highlight specific skills.

Formatting Your Resume

Regardless of which resume style you choose to use, it should always be formatted in a specific way. Proper formatting ensures that your accomplishment will be noticed instead of the font. By following the guidelines below, you’ll be helping yourself polish your resume so that it makes a strong first impression.

1. Format your resume. Some guidelines to follow when formatting your resume:

   • Set your margins to 1” all the way around.

   • Use a standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman.

   • Use font size 16 for your name, 14 for section headings, and 12 for all other text.

   • Use bold font for your name and section headings.

   • Use plenty of white space (blank lines). The proper use of white space will make your resume easy to scan quickly and much easier to read.

   • Always use white paper and black font.

2. Create your heading. The heading of your resume should include your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. Your name should be in 16-point bold type, and the rest of the heading in regular 12-point font. You may either center the information, or justify it to the left or right of the page.

3. Spell check and proofread your resume. This step cannot be overemphasized. Proofread your resume several times. Have someone else proofread it. Then, have another person further removed from you read it. Spelling and grammar errors in a resume will get it discarded regardless of your skills and experience. Some things to look for when proofreading are:

   • Spelling mistakes

   • Grammatical errors

   • Incorrect contact information

   • Typos

   • Misuse of the apostrophe, plurals, and possessives

Sample Resumes

Here are some well formatted sample resumes you can copy and use, with information below on how to write your own resume.

	Sample chronological resume		Sample functional resume		Sample combination resume

EXAMPLE

Jay Price 438, Grant W. ST, Alabama, AL, 453678 (216) 546-1233 jay.price@email.com

Objective To better facilitate student learning in the area of politics and history

Experience Dec 2001 to present [Saint John’s Junior College, Belize, Teacher] Department of General Studies

• Facilitate student learning and conduct research in the area of politics and western civilization

• Assist in the coordination and implementation of community service and student affairs activities

Aug 2000 to Dec 2001 [Saint Louis University,Saint Louis, USA] Graduate Researcher, Dept of Public Policy and Urban Research

• Conducted research in community, neighborhood development and economic policy

• Coordinated special outreach projects to promote the department’s research interest

Jan 1999 to May 2000 [Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, USA Resident Advisor, Department of Residence Life

• Developed and implemented programs to encourage student participation

• Supervised others in the maintenance and enforcement of university policies

• Participated in leadership training and community building workshops

May 1999 to Aug 1999 [Ministry of Human Development ,Belmopan, Belize] Intern, United Nations Development Programme

• Worked with the Project for Sustainable Human Development, a community development plan aimed at empowering rural villagers in Belize

• Collected field data, drafted reports, and provided feedback to supervisors

Education Aug 2000 to Dec 2001 [Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, USA]

• Master of Arts in Public Administration (specialty – economic development, organizational learning)

• Post Graduate Certificate in Education (completed seminars on teaching and technology strategies)

Aug 2000 to Dec 2001 [Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, USA]

• Bachelors of Arts in Sociology and International Relations (graduated summa cum laude)

Leadership

2002 to present - Director of Youth and Member of the Central Executive, UDP 2001 to 2001 - President, International Students, Saint Louis University 2000 to 2001 - Student Representative, VP for Student Development’s Board 1998 to 2000 - Senator, Saint Louis University Student Government 1997 to 1998 - President, Saint John’s College Student Government

Awards

Aug 2002 - Commencement Speaker, Saint John’s College Graduation Nov 2001 - Recipient, Kathy W. Humphrey Award for Diversity Nov 2001 - Member, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor and Service Society May 2001 - Recipient, Saint Louis University Student Leadership Award May 1998 - Recipient, The Katharine Walsh Scholarship May 1998 - Speaker, The Belize National Teacher's Day Ceremony April 1998 - Recipient, The Saint John Berchman Award for Leadership